Description

Frank MillerBatman: The Dark Knight Returns#2 Iconic Cover Original Art (DC, 1986). While we've sold a
number of stand-out pages from this legendary series -- including a
splash page from issue #3, which achieved a record price, for a
piece of American comic art, of $448,125 in 2011 -- we don't have
enough superlatives to describe this jaw-dropping cover, the first
ever to appear at auction. This is the only cover from the
four-issue series to be rendered in pen and ink completely by Frank
Miller, with no significant painted elements or overlays, and in
our mind is artistically the best of the four.
Batman's gritty resolve in the face of overwhelming adversity
blazes through in this iconic image. In short, this is one of the
greatest pieces of comic art to ever be offered at auction; not
only does it represent one of the most memorable images from the
decade, but from Batman's entire illustrious history. Miller's
revolutionary Dark Knight radically altered the direction of
comics with its prestige mini-series format, combined with the fact
that it was one of the first modern mainstream features to put a
gritty noir patina on the squeaky-clean Silver Age hero
mythos previously exemplified by DC. The series has since been
celebrated as among the most important and influential stories ever
published.
The Bristol board, with an image area of approximately 12.75" x
17.75", shows evidence of being lightly sun-struck, though Miller's
bold inks are entirely unfaded and unaffected. His initials in the
lower middle of the image and signature on the lower right have
faded, and the art is in Very Good condition.